Lecture 1: Introduction
Social psychology is interested in the way people think about and subjectively experience
themselves and their social world, as well as in the way people influence and relate to one
another in either interpersonal exchanges on group settings.
Axioms within social psychology:
1. Human cognition, emotion, and behavior = f
(Person x Situation)
- Different people respond differently to the same situation & the same person
responds differently to different situations
- People choose situations and situations ‘choose’ people
- People change situations and situations change people
- Situations influence us automatically
2. People tend to construct their own social reality
- Human cognition, emotion, and behavior is strongly influenced by the
situation, or rather, by people’s interpretation of the situation
- Situation → perception → cognition/motivation/behavior
- Consequences:
- Self-serving interpretations
- Motivated reasoning: people selectively interpret evidence that
supports their worldview (and ignore evidence that does not support
it)
- It is very different to compromise when different parties experience
their moral worldview as an objective truth
3. People are social animals
- Others influence most of what people think, feel, and do. Why? Because of
our need to belong
- Evolutionarily adaptive. Early ancestors lived as hunters and gatherers in
difficult conditions; cooperation and group life was essential for survival
- The social brain hypothesis suggests that our complex human brain
evolved as a result of our complex social life
- Good for psychological and emotional well-being. It is in our nature to desire
meaningful relationships with others and exclusion from social relationships
(i.e., o
stracism) is therefore painful. Ostracism threatens four needs: belonging,
control, self-esteem, meaningful existence
- Being excluded activates the same brain regions as actual, physical
pain
- Social exclusion decreases performance on intelligence tests
1
,In sum, social psychology’s central themes concern (1) how we construct and construe our
social worlds, (2) how our everyday thinking, habits and social interactions guide and
sometimes deceive us, (3) how our psychological functions are shaped by biology,
temperament, culture and other people, and (4) how social psychology’s principles apply to
our everyday lives and to various other fields of study.
Brief history of social psychology:
- David Hume (1711-76): ‘of national characters’ (1742) influenced later work on
prejudice (such as Gordon Allport) that emphasises trait explanations for behavior
- Adam Smith (1723-90): T
he Theory of Moral Sentiments
(1759) influences some
modern-day thinking of the self (used metaphors such as ‘mirror’ and ‘looking glass
self’)
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): theorising on the mind (e.g., knowledge, inclination for
power, how people manipulate each other, etc.) influenced the subsequent rise of
Gestalt psychology
- Gestalt psychology: a German school of psychology advocating a holistic
theory of mind and brain, focusing on how these actively structure our
perceptions and impressions. It emphasises that one needs to look at the
comprehensive situation to fully understand the human conscious
experience, asserting ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’
- Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841): emphasises the social aspects of the self (‘a
human being is nothing outside society’). These ideas shaped the later development
of Völkerpsychologie (mass psychology) => thought of as the founder of social
psychology
- Völkerpsychologie: claims that people who belong to the same social
group(s) tend to think in the same way, holding collective beliefs, norms, and
values
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857): argues that the methods used in the natural sciences
could be used in the social sciences. The principle of positivism subsequently enters
social psychology
- Positivism: an approach to science that claims true knowledge can be
achieved only through sense perception and empirical investigation
- Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): develops Völkerpsychologie. A
dvocates the use of
laboratories to study human mental processes. Known as the founding father of
experimental psychology
- Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931): L
a psychologie des foules
(1895) influenced modern-day
psychology of the crowd, intergroup relations and aggression
2
, - William James (1843-1910): founder of American Psychology. Produces the book
Principles of Psychology
(1890) and theorises ‘the social self’. Around this time social
psychology becomes a discipline in its own right
- Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): distinguishes between individual and collective thought
(social ideas and values which exist independently of individuals but have an
influence on their thinking). His ideas contributed to theorising on language, social
interactions and ‘Social Representations Theory’
- George Herbert Mead (1863-1931): lectures and publications on self and society
influence modern theorising on language and communication
- Edward Alsworth Ross (1866-1951): produces American textbook S
ocial Psychology
(1908), focusing on the relationship between individuals and their group (e.g., social
influence, crowds, and control)
- William McDougall (1871-1938): writes textbook An Introduction to Social Psychology
(1908), heavily influenced by evolutionary theory and Darwinism
- Evolutionary psychology: a field of study that looks at the role of evolutionary
processes and principles of natural selection in shaping cognition and
behavior
- Kurt Lewin (1890-1947): Gestalt psychologist. His theorising on prejudice, intergroup
relations, leadership and decision making contributes to present-day social
psychology
- Floyd Allport (1890-1978): publishes social psychology textbook (1924), emphasising
individual processes in understanding human behavior
- Gordon Allport (1897-1967): focuses on the role of personality traits to understand
social psychological topics such as prejudice
Levels of explanation: human behavior can be understood and interpreted at different
levels:
- Intrapersonal processes(how different social events and interactions affect a person’s
cognition, affect, and behavior)
- Interpersonal relations(between-person interactions)
- Intra-group processes(relationships between people within a group)
- Intergroup relations(between-group relationships, e.g., Rotterdam vs Amsterdam)
Critical social psychology: a diverse array of social psychologists dedicated to examining
the social (and ideological) context in which human behavior occurs and the role of the
researcher in producing the knowledge s/he discovers, and promoting social psychology’s
role in reform and change. Embraces:
3
, - Social constructionism: an approach to how understanding of reality is formed and
structured, which argues that all cognitive functions originate in social interaction,
and must therefore be explained as the products of social interactions
- Discursive psychology: proposes a view of language as ‘social action’ as speakers
construct the social world and their position within it through talk and text. It
examines how cognitive entities and psychological phenomena are constructed in
discourse
- Phenomenological psychology: this form of psychology argues that subjective
conscious experience and a sense of ‘being in the world’ are fundamental in
understanding human social behaviour
Because scholars at work in any given area often change a common viewpoint or come
from the same culture, their assumptions may go unchallenged
- Culture: the enduring behaviours, ideas, attitudes and traditions shared by a large
group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
- Social representations: socially shared beliefs - widely held ideas and values,
including our assumptions and cultural ideologies. Our social representations help us
make sense of our world
Lecture 2: Small Group Processes
A group is t wo or more people who interact with and influence one another and p
erceive
one another as ‘us’
- Groups are dynamic; members influence each others’ performance, opinions, and
decisions
- Held together by group cohesiveness
- The more a member identifies with the group, the more likely they are to
adhere to the group’s norms
- Group members have s tatusdifferences (valued vs. non-valued members). The
status within the group interferes with identification
- Low status ⇒ low cohesion and identification within the group
- Hierarchical vs. egalitarian types of groups
- Power differences (leaders vs. followers)
- Communication network; ‘all-channel communication’ network (high group morale
and performance) vs. ‘chains of command’ (divided responsibilities → time efficient)
Co-actors are co-participants working individually on a non-competitive activity
- Mere presence
; do not compete, do not reward or punish, merely stay present
Originally, social facilitation (term introduced by Allport in 1920s) was thought of as the
tendency for people to perform simple or well-learned tasks
better when others are present
4
Social psychology is interested in the way people think about and subjectively experience
themselves and their social world, as well as in the way people influence and relate to one
another in either interpersonal exchanges on group settings.
Axioms within social psychology:
1. Human cognition, emotion, and behavior = f
(Person x Situation)
- Different people respond differently to the same situation & the same person
responds differently to different situations
- People choose situations and situations ‘choose’ people
- People change situations and situations change people
- Situations influence us automatically
2. People tend to construct their own social reality
- Human cognition, emotion, and behavior is strongly influenced by the
situation, or rather, by people’s interpretation of the situation
- Situation → perception → cognition/motivation/behavior
- Consequences:
- Self-serving interpretations
- Motivated reasoning: people selectively interpret evidence that
supports their worldview (and ignore evidence that does not support
it)
- It is very different to compromise when different parties experience
their moral worldview as an objective truth
3. People are social animals
- Others influence most of what people think, feel, and do. Why? Because of
our need to belong
- Evolutionarily adaptive. Early ancestors lived as hunters and gatherers in
difficult conditions; cooperation and group life was essential for survival
- The social brain hypothesis suggests that our complex human brain
evolved as a result of our complex social life
- Good for psychological and emotional well-being. It is in our nature to desire
meaningful relationships with others and exclusion from social relationships
(i.e., o
stracism) is therefore painful. Ostracism threatens four needs: belonging,
control, self-esteem, meaningful existence
- Being excluded activates the same brain regions as actual, physical
pain
- Social exclusion decreases performance on intelligence tests
1
,In sum, social psychology’s central themes concern (1) how we construct and construe our
social worlds, (2) how our everyday thinking, habits and social interactions guide and
sometimes deceive us, (3) how our psychological functions are shaped by biology,
temperament, culture and other people, and (4) how social psychology’s principles apply to
our everyday lives and to various other fields of study.
Brief history of social psychology:
- David Hume (1711-76): ‘of national characters’ (1742) influenced later work on
prejudice (such as Gordon Allport) that emphasises trait explanations for behavior
- Adam Smith (1723-90): T
he Theory of Moral Sentiments
(1759) influences some
modern-day thinking of the self (used metaphors such as ‘mirror’ and ‘looking glass
self’)
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): theorising on the mind (e.g., knowledge, inclination for
power, how people manipulate each other, etc.) influenced the subsequent rise of
Gestalt psychology
- Gestalt psychology: a German school of psychology advocating a holistic
theory of mind and brain, focusing on how these actively structure our
perceptions and impressions. It emphasises that one needs to look at the
comprehensive situation to fully understand the human conscious
experience, asserting ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’
- Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841): emphasises the social aspects of the self (‘a
human being is nothing outside society’). These ideas shaped the later development
of Völkerpsychologie (mass psychology) => thought of as the founder of social
psychology
- Völkerpsychologie: claims that people who belong to the same social
group(s) tend to think in the same way, holding collective beliefs, norms, and
values
- Auguste Comte (1798-1857): argues that the methods used in the natural sciences
could be used in the social sciences. The principle of positivism subsequently enters
social psychology
- Positivism: an approach to science that claims true knowledge can be
achieved only through sense perception and empirical investigation
- Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): develops Völkerpsychologie. A
dvocates the use of
laboratories to study human mental processes. Known as the founding father of
experimental psychology
- Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931): L
a psychologie des foules
(1895) influenced modern-day
psychology of the crowd, intergroup relations and aggression
2
, - William James (1843-1910): founder of American Psychology. Produces the book
Principles of Psychology
(1890) and theorises ‘the social self’. Around this time social
psychology becomes a discipline in its own right
- Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): distinguishes between individual and collective thought
(social ideas and values which exist independently of individuals but have an
influence on their thinking). His ideas contributed to theorising on language, social
interactions and ‘Social Representations Theory’
- George Herbert Mead (1863-1931): lectures and publications on self and society
influence modern theorising on language and communication
- Edward Alsworth Ross (1866-1951): produces American textbook S
ocial Psychology
(1908), focusing on the relationship between individuals and their group (e.g., social
influence, crowds, and control)
- William McDougall (1871-1938): writes textbook An Introduction to Social Psychology
(1908), heavily influenced by evolutionary theory and Darwinism
- Evolutionary psychology: a field of study that looks at the role of evolutionary
processes and principles of natural selection in shaping cognition and
behavior
- Kurt Lewin (1890-1947): Gestalt psychologist. His theorising on prejudice, intergroup
relations, leadership and decision making contributes to present-day social
psychology
- Floyd Allport (1890-1978): publishes social psychology textbook (1924), emphasising
individual processes in understanding human behavior
- Gordon Allport (1897-1967): focuses on the role of personality traits to understand
social psychological topics such as prejudice
Levels of explanation: human behavior can be understood and interpreted at different
levels:
- Intrapersonal processes(how different social events and interactions affect a person’s
cognition, affect, and behavior)
- Interpersonal relations(between-person interactions)
- Intra-group processes(relationships between people within a group)
- Intergroup relations(between-group relationships, e.g., Rotterdam vs Amsterdam)
Critical social psychology: a diverse array of social psychologists dedicated to examining
the social (and ideological) context in which human behavior occurs and the role of the
researcher in producing the knowledge s/he discovers, and promoting social psychology’s
role in reform and change. Embraces:
3
, - Social constructionism: an approach to how understanding of reality is formed and
structured, which argues that all cognitive functions originate in social interaction,
and must therefore be explained as the products of social interactions
- Discursive psychology: proposes a view of language as ‘social action’ as speakers
construct the social world and their position within it through talk and text. It
examines how cognitive entities and psychological phenomena are constructed in
discourse
- Phenomenological psychology: this form of psychology argues that subjective
conscious experience and a sense of ‘being in the world’ are fundamental in
understanding human social behaviour
Because scholars at work in any given area often change a common viewpoint or come
from the same culture, their assumptions may go unchallenged
- Culture: the enduring behaviours, ideas, attitudes and traditions shared by a large
group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
- Social representations: socially shared beliefs - widely held ideas and values,
including our assumptions and cultural ideologies. Our social representations help us
make sense of our world
Lecture 2: Small Group Processes
A group is t wo or more people who interact with and influence one another and p
erceive
one another as ‘us’
- Groups are dynamic; members influence each others’ performance, opinions, and
decisions
- Held together by group cohesiveness
- The more a member identifies with the group, the more likely they are to
adhere to the group’s norms
- Group members have s tatusdifferences (valued vs. non-valued members). The
status within the group interferes with identification
- Low status ⇒ low cohesion and identification within the group
- Hierarchical vs. egalitarian types of groups
- Power differences (leaders vs. followers)
- Communication network; ‘all-channel communication’ network (high group morale
and performance) vs. ‘chains of command’ (divided responsibilities → time efficient)
Co-actors are co-participants working individually on a non-competitive activity
- Mere presence
; do not compete, do not reward or punish, merely stay present
Originally, social facilitation (term introduced by Allport in 1920s) was thought of as the
tendency for people to perform simple or well-learned tasks
better when others are present
4
